Hi
a bit of background first - Mum died 3 years ago - a surprise as she was 5 years younger than Dad, who is now 84. He's done pretty well the last 3 years - he has been doing voluntary work 3 mornings a week and visits a friend for a coffee most days (a lady who is a family friend - nothing romantic just long standing friend who lives locally)
This lady (86) has recently been diagnosed with dementia so dad is finding her difficult to be with. (incidentally she has a lot of family who live locally and see her a lot and obviously are aware of her situation)
Anyway, we are 4 daughters but unfortunately none of live close by (we range from 30 to 300 miles away) and whilst the ones who are closer try to visit every fortnight or so or have Dad to stay over for a few days we cant be there everyday and we all work full time.
Also, Dad was always, and i mean ALWAYS at work and we never had a close relationship with him like we did with our mother. He never seemed that interested in us tbh.
Anyway, my sister was speaking to him today and he says he hasn't been into his voluntary work this week as he didn't feel like it and when pushed he admitted to feeling lonely. She reminded him about a stay at her house coming up and also that he has an extended stay at christmas but she said she felt terrible when she got off the phone.
We have tried to make suggestions, clubs to join, get a pet, take up a new hobby but he seems disinclined to do any of that and seems to think we should be providing him with all the social interaction he needs(though he did admit to my sister that he understands we all work and have other commitments/children/gc etc...
Really just wondering if anyone has any suggestions i can put to him.
thanks